From 2010 to 2015, she was Secretary to All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Domestic and Sexual Violence,[12] which published the report "The Changing Landscape of Domestic and Sexual Violence Services" in February 2015.[13]

Despite being an opposition MP since entering Parliament in 2010, she has campaigned successfully on a number of local issues, most notably forcing a government U-turn on the rebuilding of Hetton School, after plans to do so were cancelled by the Conservative-led government in 2010.[14] The school was eventually rebuilt and reopened in 2016.[15]